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Apple Picking Time in Oak Glen, California: 4 Places to Stop

To southern Californians, Oak Glen = apples. Make a day of it, bring the family, breathe the crisp mountain air, pick your own apples, eat pie and enjoy the gorgeous scenery in this old-fashioned mountain town.

If you live in or are visiting Southern California now, get yourself to Oak Glen, a rustic, scenic agricultural community in Apple Country in the San Bernardino Mountains, about 15 miles east of San Bernardino.

It’s a perfect Fall day trip or autumn get-away — family-friendly, old-timey, with places for the kids to run around, gift shops for the adults, and apple-picking and apple-eating as the underpinning of a great day. The crisp mountain air is matched by the crisp apples just waiting to be plucked by flatlanders, who have flocked here since apples became the main crop in the 1940s.

Oak Glen Road is a 5-mile loop with more than 30 independently owned ranches, farms and businesses, so there is plenty to explore, but I’ll start you out with the tour we did with a small group of Los Angeles food bloggers.

You know we’re going to steer you to some some delicious destinations.

1. Apple picking

Riley’s at Los Rios Rancho: This 103-year-old ranch is Southern California’s largest historical apple ranch. Orchards open, ripe, and ready to pick the weekend we went were Granny Smith, Red Rome and Fuji; as different orchards ripen, they will open to pickers. Grab a bag from the counter, walk to the orchard, stroll among the trees and reach up and pick your favorite fruits. When you’re done, pay by the pound. There’s a country store there, as well as meat roasting on a barbecue outside. Take a rest on their expansive grassy lawn (perfect for a picnic), or head on your way to the next stop.

2. Hard cider

While at Los Rios Rancho, hit the Oak Glen Cider Company stand outside, where you can taste and buy their artisanal hard cider. It’s “hard” because it is fermented, using only apple cider and yeast, which produces a carbonated beverage that is about 6% alcohol. What does it taste like? Rootstock reminded me of an apple-tinged beer, and Gravenstein Cider and Apple Berry Cider might be more likened to wine (rose?), although each taster in our group had a different opinion. I imagined myself with a drippy grilled Gruyere cheese sandwich for lunch, accompanied by a chilled glass of their Rootstock Hard Cider, and I got a big smile on my face. They can hardly keep up with demand, and sell out each weekend, so go early.

3. Apple Cider Donuts

Those three little words…so good, so worth the line you may wait in to get them. Stop at Snowline Orchard and Winery, get in the queue outside, and breathe deeply of the cinnamon-inflected air wafting out from the donuttery. (Is that a word? It should be.) Watch as their machine plops mini donuts into a lake of hot oil, where they swim for a bit, do the backstroke, and emerge, only to be dried off, dusted with cinnamon sugar and slid into a bag for you to munch on, hot, sugary and so deeply satisfying. “These will change your life,” said our blogger guide Sara De Leeuw. I scoffed until I had one in my mouth. Then I just nodded; the universe had opened its secrets to me.

4. Mile-High Apple Pie

You didn’t expect to leave Oak Glen without a bakery box heavy with a freshly baked apple pie, did you? Stop at Apple Annie’s in Oak Tree Village and rest your gaze on their shelves of tall pies. Eat a mel in the restaurant (chicken pot pie, fried chicken, ribs, fish and chips, apple pie by the slice) if you like, but don’t leave without a whole pie, either with a top crust or streusel. Buy the mini pie if you must, but I’m here to tell you there is no finer breakfast the next morning than a slice of Apple Annie’s Mile-High Apple Pie. Plan accordingly; buy the big 5-pound pie. There’s 14 acres of family fun here, as well, so bring the kids.

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This was originally published Oct. 9, 2017 on Shockingly Delicious, and has been republished today.

I’ve worked in a pick-up vegetable, fruit and flower farm for a few months last year, I had already been there as a customer, I love this place, even if working there was a bit different ^_^ I love pick-up farms for so many reasons, you can choose your own fruit and veggies and how ripe you want them and they’re not damaged during transport.

We used to go to Oak Glen every year to apple pick, eat pie, and go to the petting farm (they used to have a place where you could feed and pet the animals). I haven’t been as often as an adult, but need to go back soon.

SO GOOD! It was great to see you, and it was really fun to pick apples, but I’m so sad I missed the mile-high apple pie! I’ll just have to plan to go again so I can get some of those secrets from the universe. ; )

I am eye balling the apple cider right!
So wish I could do this sometime. I have not been to an estate to go apple picking as we have enough apples growing at home but I remember the days when strawberry picking fields were common. I loved picking fresh fruits, it’s such a rewarding feeling!

I am not sure I have EVER seen a pie that high! Holy moly, does that look delicious? I just went apple picking last weekend and enjoyed some apple cider donuts after working up an appetite picking all those apples! Such a fun time of year!

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